The Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire Constabulary, Alec Wood, has announced that he will retire from the service in September.

Mr Wood has served 32 years as a police office, five of which have been in Cambridgeshire, where he became Chief Constable in August 2015.

He said: ““It has been an absolute privilege for me to work in this wonderful force with the dedicated, caring and skilled staff who make up Cambridgeshire Constabulary.

“I have been part of some significant challenges and developments during my time in office here, including the design and implementation of the new local policing model, not to mention overseeing huge areas of the organisation being collaborated with Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.

“However, as the local policing model launches and we will start to see significantly more frontline officers join us over the next eighteen months to two years, I feel the time is right for me to hand over the reins to a new chief constable who will continue to take the force forward.

“I will always be hugely proud to have been Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire Constabulary, and the five years I have worked in the county have undoubtedly been the highlight of what has been an amazing and varied thirty-two years in policing.”

Mr Wood’s police career began in Lincolnshire as a police constable in 1986 where he progressed through each rank up to Chief Superintendent serving in uniform and crime investigation roles.

He was appointed the Temporary Assistant Chief Constable for Lincolnshire in 2009, and in 2010 was appointed the ACC for Operational Policing in Derbyshire.

In 2012 Mr Wood returned to Lincolnshire becoming Deputy Chief Constable (DCC) and then acting Chief Constable before joining Cambridgeshire Constabulary as DCC in 2013.

Since January 2016 he has been the Chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) Operations Co-ordinating Committee and is the national lead for Police Aviation.

Cambridgeshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Jason Ablewhite, commented: “I have been very fortunate to work with Alec over the past two years.

“His approachable and principled style of leadership leaves the constabulary in a very strong position to respond to the challenges ahead.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank him publically for his exemplary leadership and wish him the very best of luck with his future endeavours. He will be missed.”

The Police and Crime Commissioner is responsible for appointing the Chief Constable.

A recruitment process will start as soon as possible, which the Commissioner’s office will lead on, and it will run in an open and transparent manner.

Information regarding the application process will be available on the Commissioner’s website. The Police and Crime Panel has the responsibility for reviewing the Commissioner’s proposed candidate in due course.